It Was Just A Winter's Night
by AziAchillesJackson
Summary: Arianna grew up in the Red Room, knowing nothing but the Red Room. When she's told she's was going to be The Winter Soldier's new partner, she's worried. But our Soldier isn't what she thought he would be. When she doesn't even know her own age or birthday, how is she going to cope with people who apparently know more about her than she does?
1. Meetings

"Again!" Madame B shouted in my ear. I didn't even bat an eyelid. The Red Room were ruthless and thorough in their training. Assets were to be killing machines. No fears, no emotions, no pain. I held two guns in my hands. I flawlessly swapped the cartridges and held them up to the target. I fired five shots from each gun before throwing them in the air, swapping hands before emptying the bullets into the target. There was only one hole. In between the eyes.

"Excellent." She whispered in my ear. "You'll be a perfect match for him."

I retained a shudder at her voice and who she was referring to. Everyone here and probably anywhere had heard of the Winter Soldier. Russia's prized assassin. The current programme was to find a female partner for him. They said dual sex partnerships worked best. No one questioned them; those who did never returned.

Madame B walked slowly, her heels clacking sharply against the wooden floor. She stood silently before me and watched me. I maintained eye contact the whole time.

Looking away was a sign of weakness.

A voice spoke from behind me in Russian. "Is she the one?" Madame B scrutinised me looking for the slightly imperfection in my appearance and posture.

"She is." She replied in our native tongue.

"They will acquaint themselves tomorrow." The man walked forward and stood next to her but my eyes remained locked with hers. "They must be compatible. Until then, kill the others."  
I saw a flicker of emotion in Madame's eyes before I realised something. She had grown a slither of feeling towards the other assets. Internally I frowned. Emotion caused weakness which led to being compromised. You were to avoid being compromised at all costs. There is no such thing as failure at the Red Room.

"Already done, sir." She walked out and I remained facing ahead.

"Look at me, asset!"  
My head snapped towards him.  
"What is your birth name?" The man asked. He had slicked back black hair, clearly dyed, and sharp grey eyes.  
"Arianna Katyna, sir." My voice was crystal clear, only a slight Russian twinge was there. Assets had any idiosyncrasies or accents beaten out of them when they start training. Assets had to be untraceable.  
"Bury it. Never utter it, breathe it, or even think it because if you do, you'll be begging for death." "Understood, sir." I wasn't expecting the slap that hit my right cheek. I barely felt the pain before I compartmentalised away in my head. "I did not ask you to understand it! I told you to bury it! Assets do not speak unless spoken to!" The man got up in my face. I remained stoic, not even blinking until he took a step back.  
"You are the asset. You now go by Nightshade unless told other wise." I nodded once. "You are to come here in your uniform at 0500. Don't be late." He walked out the room. I waited until his footsteps receded before letting out the slightest of sighs.  
Time to prepare.

I walked silently into the training room as the clock strikes five. Punctuality was the first thing that was drilled in us. There was only the candlelit chandelier in the middle of the room casting light and even then it wasn't a lot. In the corner of the room a man sat silently watched my every movement. He stood up fluidly, the metal of his left arm catching the light. The Red star was prominent on his shoulder as he wore his uniform. I stood to attention and watched his every movement.

"Zimniy Soldat." I greeted formally.  
"Paslen." He responded.  
"You two are to work together. To shape the future. From now one you are one and the same. You have one hour before your initiation mission. Get to know the other's techniques. You are now a single machine." The man from yesterday walked in and stood to my left. "I am Volskov. First name irrelevant. I am your SO and CO rolled into one. You disobey and you both know the consequences."  
"Da, ser." We replied in sync. We looked at each other for a moment before looking at Volskov.  
"Begin." He said before leaving. The Winter Solder slowly removed the facial equipment he was wearing and removed his weapons. I wasn't stupid enough to believe he had removed all of them. He methodically laid them on the floor and motioned at me to do the same. I looked at him as I removed the short sword from my back followed by my tactical belt and guns. I removed the holster and sheath of knives from my shoulders.

"We shall spar for 15 minutes, shoot for 15, abilities for 10, mission preparation for 20. Objections?"

"Net." I shook my head He took first swing.

We were re-attaching our equipment after cleaning them when Volskov walked in. "I have observed your dynamics as a pair. You work efficiently together. You need to get better. The only people you trust are each other." We both looked at the other before looking away. "You need to communicate more. Put these comms in. You are to use them. The only time you take them out is to wash. You're mission is to wipe out this cartel. They think they are strong enough to over throw us. You prove them wrong." I looked at Volskov asking a silent question.  
"Confirmed success in eighteen hours. You are going incognito. Safe house with further instructions is at these co-ordinates. There is a helicopter outside." Volskov finished before abruptly leaving. He paused before he reached the door. "Soldier, do Nightshade's hair the way you were told." I was confused. Why would they need to do my hair? It was in a high ponytail, the way it had been since my first hour at the Red Room. We were told ponytails were practical and efficient. An asset should not spend more time then absolutely essential on her appearance.  
The Winter Soldier pushed my shoulder with his metal hand and I walked forward towards the helicopter that was waiting outside. The Soldier walked in and immediately started to flip switches and press buttons as I slid the door closed and locked it. After ten minutes of silent flight he pressed a series of buttons before unbuckling himself and walking towards me like a predator stalking its prey. It struck me that he could kill me so many ways before I could put up much of a fight, despite my multiple years of training. He quietly unbuckled me before he spoke. "Kneel here." I complied and kneeled where he had pointed. My hands twitching to the knives attached to my boots.  
"Relax." I felt him kneel down behind me and remove my sword. He placed it to our right purposely so I could see it. I felt his hands go to my hair and remove the band. I tensed as I felt my hair fall against my back in its chocolate brown waves. The sensation was foreign, my hair being down. The longest it was ever down was the five minutes we were allowed to shower at the Red Room.  
"Relax." A quiet voice said from behind me and I relaxed slightly but remained on guard. I felt the Soldier put his hand in my hair and pull them through with a gentleness that shocked me.  
The Winter Soldier was doing my hair. We were always told that The Winter Soldier was ruthless, efficient and silent. That we had to idolise the soldat. That he never did anything unnecessarily, which we should do. That he never made mistakes. Yet here that man was doing my hair. I knew that shock would be evident on my face and suddenly was glad that the Soldier was behind me. This famous world-known assassin was currently doing my hair and was completely in control of the situation. That fact made me stop. I felt his hand go to the top of the back of my head and separate the hair he pulled on it gently and began. He kept picking up different pieces of my hair and adding them into whatever he was doing. It wasn't until he was doing the length of my hair did I realise that he was braiding it. When he finished he stood up and walked around in front of me, assessing his work. He seemed to hesitate before extending his hand down to pull me up. I then hesitated before accepting his hand as he pulled me to my feet. I flew slightly as he put a bit to much force into the pull before letting go of my hand. He silently walked to the cockpit and pressed a sequence of buttons before taking the wheel again.

I silently stalked forward and sat in the co-pilot seat. "Spasibo." I said quietly, thanking the person next to me.

The Soldier nodded.  
There was one thing that the trainers did get right. The Winter Soldier was an asset of mystery.

We landed shortly later, in a clearing next to the safe house. We hadn't said anything to each other since he did my hair and I had a feeling that that was how it was going to stay for a time. There was a black inconspicuous car in the driveway for us to use no doubt to get to the mission later.

The safe house was more of a safe cabin but something about it made me feel at peace and told me not to underestimate it. The Soldier walked forward and pushed something by the door and pulled keys out of the section that had opened up. I quickly followed and stepped over the threshold. I looked around and saw a table with a couple of chairs to one side with a map of Europe hung above it.

The Soldier quietly spoke next to me. "Volskov said that there was a package on your cot for you. He said it was for the mission." He walked off to the kitchenette and began looking in all the cupboards. On the table there was a Manila folder which I quickly picked up.

Mission Briefing for The Winter Soldier and Nightshade

 **Target: Kilianov Ausikya**

 **Gender: Male**

 **Nationality: Russian**

 **Age: 37**

 **Mission Perimeters: Ausikya will be at a ball to discuss a business transaction. The ball is to celebrate said transaction. Assets are to stop this transaction and neutralise the threat. Assets are to attend backroom meeting between the three and then neutralise, neutralisation must not have any witnesses. No collateral damage allowed.**

 **Aliases: Winter Soldier is to be known as Viktor Sherinov, businessman Nightshade is to be known as Anastasiya Sherinov, professional dancer The Sherinovs have been married for three years after meeting in Venice on business. They are high up in the oil trade and 'need' to land the secondary deal that is to be discussed.**

I put down the folder. I would almost put money on the fact that the reason we were being a married couple was an attempt at getting us to 'bond'. I looked at the Soldier who was looking through his arsenal. This was going to be awkward. Picking up the folder again, I slowly walked over to him and placed the folder on the table.  
"We have our orders." I spoke quietly, not wanting to break the quiet atmosphere.  
He nodded once before returning to what he was doing. "I'm going to get ready." I told him before quickly walking away.

It wasn't hard to figure out which room was mine due to only one of us wore dresses. A dress that looked way to expensive for an asset like me to wear had been carefully hung on a hook next to the bed. The dress was a Greek style, all white apart from a silver shoulder detail. On the floor next to it was a box with delicate silver heels on top and a small jewellery box. On the bed was a note.

 **Nightshade, These items are to come back in the condition they are now or else remember my previous threat. Love Volskov x**

I felt an uncomfortable bubble rise in before I forcefully shoved it away. I was Nightshade, the assassin trained in the Red Room. I did not have emotions. I slipped out of my combat uniform and carefully placed my thigh sheath on the bed for me to put on. I checked the back of the dress to see how to put it on and saw an invisible zip. I quickly slipped the sheath on and tightened it appropriately. I tested my leg to make sure I could still move it normally before taking the dress. I changed my mind at the last minute and put the shoes on first, not wants to crease the beautiful dress. Carefully I slipped into the dress and slid my shoulder into it. I pulled up the zip. And looked in the mirror.

My chocolate coloured hair was still in the braid that the Soldier had put it in and my deep blue eyes were framed by long dark lashes. My lips were a rosy pink and skin had a very light golden tone to it. The dress accented my curves and my complexion well.  
Remembering the jewellery box I quickly bent down and snatched it up, and upon opening it I saw diamond earrings. I quickly slipped them in, for once grateful to the Red Room's painful methods of making us look normal to the extent of ear piercings.

I caught my reflection in the mirror and silently stared as I spun myself in the mirror looking at different angles. This never would have happened in the Red Room. Clearly these people have a lot of money. An almost silent knock brought me out of my reverie. "Nightshade?"

"Come in." I replied. My breath caught in my throat as I saw the feared Winter Soldier in a tuxedo. That was something I thought I'd never see.  
"We need to leave or we'll be late." He said stiffly but I didn't miss the way his eyes flitted down my body before he turned and left the room.

I was out of my depth surrounded by all these people who were practically rolling in money and associates. I sipped my champagne and smiled politely at a lady who was looking at me from across the room; she smiled back. I turned to my _husband_ next to me and sent an award-winning smile at the man he was talking to. There was a high pitched tapping and everyone hushed. Kilianov Ausikya was stood on the stage and held a wired microphone in his hand. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to thank you all graciously for coming. As we all know tonight's ball is held in honour of two critical business deals happening tonight. I would like to welcome Anna Valenkov to the stage!" The crowd cheered whilst myself and The Winter Soldier clapped politely, fake smiles plastered across our faces. Anna walked up onto the stage greeting Kilianov halfway. "I would also like to welcome Mr and Mrs Sherinov tonight but with a special request."-Both of us tensed-"I heard about Anastasiya's dancing background and couldn't help wondering if you could treat us to a dance. Anastasiya and Viktor, would you mind?" He smiled at us when he saw us.  
Shit. The target's asking me to dance with some guy that could snap me in half that I met around fourteen hours ago. Fan-bloody-tastic. This seemed like something that would happen in those movies the Red Room would force us to watch so we would know how to act like a lady.  
"It would be our honour, Kilianov." The Soldier said politely. And he took my hand in his gloved metal one and pulled me towards the dance floor. Under his breath he whispered to me. "Do you know the Viennese Waltz?" I was taken aback by his question but didn't let it show. "The Red Room is extensive in its training." I nodded to him as we faced each other in the middle of the floor. "Good."  
Kilianov spoke once again. "Do you know what dance you're going to do?"

I smiled brightly. "We were thinking of the Viennese Waltz, you know, since we met in Vienna." I pretended to lean into the soldier's chest lovingly.  
"How romantic!" A lady squealed somewhere behind me and people laughed.

"I must agree with the beautiful lady; it's a romantic choice. Band? Take it away." The band started to play and Winter placed his hands on me gently but firmly. I quickly replied in kind. We swayed side to side before he spun me out and I twirled before going back into his arms. We span together and took the steps that had been seared into my memory. We tilted our arms left to right as we span in a circle. We swayed before Winter span me around him with one hand before pulling me in close. We repeated it all again, staring at each other the whole time. Suddenly he whispered in my ear as he pulled me close.

"Do you trust me?"

I paused before I replied. "Enough to stay alive tonight."

"I'm going to lift you and you need to smile." I looked at him in shock. "Relax. 1..2…3!" He whispered as true to his word he lifted me onto his shoulder and I smiled and pointed my finger and feet. The audience cheered as he brought me down and spun me again. I twirled angelically as he pulled me close. We picked up the pace whilst remaining in time with the music as we spun around the floor faster with the classical steps. The music drew to a close but he didn't let go of me as he searched my face. Suddenly becoming aware of our environment again he pretended to press a loving kiss to my forehead before we pulled apart. Kilianov made yet another speech but neither of us were listening. We continued to mingle and receive compliments for our performance but we brushed them off as if they were nothing which they were. The dance was just part of the mission. Speaking of the mission, we pulled it off without a hitch; we slipped a toxin that caused cardiac arrest into Killianov's drink just after he signed the deal with us meaning the other business transaction couldn't happen. We were driving back to the safe house in silence, Winter was at the wheel, in complete silence. My thoughts were running rampant through my head as we pulled up. Winter unlocked the door and we were greeted by Volskov.  
"It seems like they got along just fine, sir." He smirked.

"It seems so." Another man stepped into the light and held out a hand. "Alexander Pierce, pleasure to meet you."


	2. Trust

6 Months Later, 5 years before Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Our mission was to destroy a base that had gone rogue. We were in Kamchatka, Russia, one of the most unexplored areas on the planet. Probably explains why they had a base there.I had my arms wrapped tightly around The Winter Soldier's waist as he drove the motorbike we had given with an air of expertise. We could see the checkpoint coming up and I slipped our HYDRA ID out of my pocket. Each agent had their personal ID and then, if applicable, their team ID. We rolled to a stop, the engine still humming below us as the guard checked the ID.

His eyes flashed with something before looking at our faces.

"Proceed."

With that we rode all the way to the base without a hitch, bit even needing to stop at the other checkpoints. The woods the base was situated in went on for miles in all directions, trees towering over our heads as we sped down the open track. Winter pulled up just at the edge of the base and we quietly get off and slip towards the back entrance to the compound. Our sturdy combat boots didn't make the slightest sound. In the tree line we stood, as workers bustled around. I pulled out my pistols and looked slightly towards Winter. Who spoke so quietly you would have missed it if you weren't listening for it

"Nightshade, you need to go around the north side once you're in the building. Take out all hostiles immediately. I'm going along the south side," he continued as he pulled out his own guns. "We'll meet in the mess hall situated in the centre of the ground floor. We'll set off a bomb to eliminate the rest."

I nodded almost interpretably but I knew he would catch it. I pulled out a silencer and calmly attached it to the gun in my hands. I took aim and took out five, a single bullet between the eyes, still walking forward. I could see the Winter Soldier's victims fall around me. Silent deaths tore through the air. Rogue agents fell everywhere before us. I shot the lock on the door and stormed in, sword already off my back. I twirled and sliced, destroying anyone in my path. I stopped at a corner before taking a sharp left. I was running down the hall, disposing of anyone that got in my way. Tearing into the mess hall, my sword was quickly sheathed and my guns were picking off the unfortunate souls that were in there.

I saw Winter come in and do the same from the other side. He pulled out a huge bomb made of pure C4 before placing it in the middle of the room as I covered him. He set the timer for three minutes as we resorted to hand to hand combat, my guns having run out of ammunition. A sharp pain hit the top of my left arm and I spun around to see a new squadron of soldiers there. One of them and taken a shot a missed drastically, earning me a flesh wound and them my wrath. I immediately engaged, snapping one's neck and slamming another one against the wall to hear a sickening crack. I took one step back as I threw my thighs around another's neck, twisting my body to send him to the ground before I grabbed his gun. Safe to say, they didn't last long after that.

I spun around to see the Winter Soldier taking on his own squadron. I looked at the bomb. 1:32.

"Winter. We need to go." I shot one of the men before I dragged his human arm away. He yanked it harshly out of my grasp and used it to punch another rogue out cold. "Come on!" I hissed and this time actually grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away.

He seemed to get the message this time and started running next to me. I thought about the bomb. There was a slim chance of avoiding the explosion all together. Winter shot an agent that got in our way without even breaking his pace. We slammed into the doors and they flew open causing cold air to slap against our faces. The woods got closer and closer yet they were still about a hundred metres away.

We heard the explosion before we felt it.

The world seemed to spin as I flew through the air, landing badly on my right ankle. I heard something snap and I let out a sharp breath. A red river was flowing down my left arm as I pushed myself to my feet only for my right leg to give out on me. The ground rushed up to meet me but strong arms wrapped around my waist before picking me up.

"Stay awake, Night." A male voice grumbled above me and I looked to see the Winter Soldier running whilst carrying me.

I squirmed. "I can walk, you know."

He snorted, a sound I'd never heard from him. "Just like you could stand up just now." I felt myself being lower and Winter's metal arm winding its way tightly around my waist. "Hold on."

I wrapped my good arm around him and we drove off, using speeds that were in no way legal.

We got back to the base in times that were probably unheard of. I was playing nodding donkey, my eyes fluttering closed every few seconds as I thought to stay awake. My left side was coated in my blood as was Winter's metal left arm.

I looked up to see his face was sporting a black eye and other bruising along that side of his face whilst I had the gaping cut on my shoulder and a dislocated ankle. He had his metal arm underneath my shoulders whilst his natural one was hooked under my knees. Winter stormed down the corridors that we both knew oh so well. He walked into the medical room and snatched the first aid kit from its hook. The medical staff had long fled the room, having heard that we were coming. Winter snapped the lid up and immediately pulled out gloves followed by a needle and surgical thread. He look at me for a brief before stitching up my shoulder.

My eyes flickered shut as I saw the small pool of blood that had been forming on the floor. I became light headed. Suddenly there was a hit to my cheek and my eyes snapped open, completely alert.

Winter was looking at me sternly. "Stay awake."

I nodded numbly as he continued his job. He cut the last stitch neatly and wrapped a bandage around it to prevent infection. Attending to my ankle next, Winter was careful not to jostle it too much before snapping it back into place. A loud hiss emigrated from my mouth. Ow. Footsteps round the corner and walked into the room. We didn't look away from each other as he tied the bandage around my ankle off. The Winter Soldier was yanked away from me by a group of men and Alexander Pierce appeared in my vision as I remained on the table, watching Winter struggle against the guards.

Pierce began to speak. "You see dear, the Soldier was given a very simple task. Protect Nightshade from harm for this one mission. He failed that order and failure is something we can not accept nor tolerate at HYDRA. We need to punish him for failing. Guards." He kept his face in mine as the guards hauled Winter away as he struggled.

"No."

"Excuse me?" Alexander looked caught between feeling shocked and furious.

"Let me take his punishment." The entire room seemed to freeze. Winter stopped violently and breathed heavily. The guards stopped where they stood. Pierce had a blank face before he grinned.

"Are you sure about this asset? You aren't in the Red Room anymore. That means it's not a mere twelve hours of the same ballet routine. It's truly physical here."

Internally I shivered and knew this was going to hurt.

I reiterated myself. "Let me take his punishment."

"Take her to the room." Pierce ordered before swishing out of the room causing his custom made suit jacket to flap around behind him.

Guards bodily hauled me from the room, dragging me down the winding corridors. They threw me to the centre of the training room and rolling slightly I braced myself sharply, ignoring the pain blooming from my ankle and shoulder. Silently kneeling in the centre of the room, I could hear Winter being chained to the side of the room due to the sounds of metal meeting metal and the ragged breathing. A cold hand wrapped around my jaw before yanking it up, my eyes met Alexander Pierce's cold grey. His other fingers caressed my cheek and it took all my self control not to pull away.

"The Winter Soldier would only have had twenty hits with the leather whips. But you, my dear, not only defied my orders but embarrassed me in front of witnesses. My dear, you have earned yourself twenty-five hits with the metal tipped whips. Perhaps that will teach you not to disobey me." Pierce pondered as my face remained blank. Internally, however, I was kicking up a storm. "You are to count every hit, understood?"

"Yes sir."

I had barely finished before the first one connected with my back. I pushed the pain aside. "One."

"Two."

"Three."

"Four." I flinched as the fifth hit came in contact with my back. "Five."

"Six."

"Seven."

"Eight."

"Nine."

"Ten." My breathing was ragged and my back would have felt better if you had poured liquid fire all over it.

"Eleven."

"Twelve."

Smack. "Thirteen."

"Fourteen."

"Fifteen." My whole body was quivering and I could feel the blood rolling down my back. Silent tears streamed down my burning cheeks as I counted the next five numbers.

"Twenty one." I finally screamed as the metal tip clawed my back which arched in pain; only to succeed in aggravating the other cuts. I could hear the chains slam dangerously against the wall as Winter struggled to get to me. The rest of the hits were punctuated with a harsh scream that would tear from my cracked lips.

"Twenty five." I whispered. Sobs racked my body violently.

I never though a number could sound so much like heaven. I was on the verge of fainting, my back now completely numb from the sheer volume of pain running through it. Faintly there was a crash as I swayed dangerously on my knees. Strong arms scooped me up, high into the air, as I could hear a deep voice ordering the arms to take me away. I was carried back to our cell and was lowered gently onto my right side with my head in the person's lap. Harsh scraping of plastic fill my ears as a green box was thrown into the room. I squinted at it to see it. A First Aid kit. I saw a metal hand reach out to grab it. Wait, metal hand? That means that I was led on the Winter Soldier's lap. I went to move but his human hand rested on my thigh.

"Stay still, ягода." _(Berry)_ He whispered.

He had given me a nickname?!

I relaxed carefully in his lap, hissing at the movement it caused in my back. He told me what he was doing every time before he did it. I had never even thought about this side of the Winter Soldier, let alone seen it. Winter was treating me like I was glass, trying to avoid causing me pain at all costs. It confused me in honesty, how someone so ruthless in the battlefield could be so gentle to me now? I tensed as he removed his hands as he finished tying of bandages. Wait - when had he started? He started whispering things in my ear quietly such as to relax and to sleep and that he was here. I found myself relaxing as his fingers wound his way through my hair. In that moment I realised something that scared me. I trusted the Winter Soldier.

I whispered something so quietly: "Arianna."

"What did you say?" He volume matched mine.

"My name. It's Arianna." I repeated and his hand stilled in my hair for a few moments before he continued.

"James." He paused for a moment. "But I think people called me Bucky but I don't know why."-I could hear the frown in his voice.-"Just get some rest." He whispered.

"I will, снжиники." _(Snowflake)_

"Snowflake?"

"It snows in winter." I whispered my eyes flickering shut. James hummed quietly in response and continued to play with my hair.

I woke up the next morning to an arm wrapped securely around my shoulders, at just the correct pressure not to hurt my damaged back. My eyes flitted across the room to see an open first aid kit, a clean cell and a watching James.

"Morning." His whispering voice was husky from lack of use.

"Morning." I crocked before coughing harshly, my throat had been torn to shreds last night.

James shushed me. "Rest your throat, Berry, Pierce will be here soon. He's had guards monitoring the cell all night."

I nodded and gently rested my head back in his lap. I gently tapped his leg in morse code. I knew he would know it and that the guards wouldn't. " _Why do you care about me?"_

I could feel him tense under me before tapping my arm in response. " _You're my partner. Partners look after each other. I could ask you why did you take my punishment last night? I have the serum; it wouldn't have hurt as much."_

I didn't reply for a while as I thought about it before replying honestly. _"Partners look after each other. There was no point in both of us being injured."_

 _"Still. You're the closest thing to a friend I remember having."_

 _"We have activation sequences, Snowflake, but I'm honoured."_

 _"Would you say the same?"_ James's left hand was slowly rubbing feather touches of patterns on my right leg as it was loosely placed on top of his.

" _Yes."_

We didn't talk much after that. We just thought about our own things. If someone told me whilst I was still in the Red Room that I would become friends with The Winter Soldier I would have laughed in their face. Now, that was my reality. Sharp footsteps sounded in the hallway and I pushed myself up as quickly as I could sitting up straight to avoid contact to my _very_ painful back.

A guard stood at the gate to the cell and put his access card against it. Shrill beeping filled the air and quickly stopped and the gate swung open. Alexander Pierce strolled in without a care in the world. My self restraint was being severely tested with my will to glare at monster.

"You're looking well, Nightshade." He nodded with faux politeness.

"I had a good doctor." I smiled with more falsity than I think I have ever had.

"Very good. You have a mission. It was originally going to be a solo mission for just you, Nightshade, but due to yesterday you will be both going. This mission can _not_ be compromised. I do not care if you come back in a hundred pieces. Just complete the damn mission."

"Target, sir?" James asked, slipping into the role of Winter Soldier easily.

"Aaron Thiles, SHIELD's top nuclear engineer. You need to get prepped." Pierce sneered. "Go."

We stood up robotically and walked to the room that we both hated. Despised. Detested. This was the room that destroyed us. Agents stepped aside to let us pass. My ankle stung but I ignored it. Guards grabbed us and shoved us into the chairs that broke us. I shouted as they slammed my back on to the chair. Restraints were slapped onto us and the head clamps were brought down. Tears leaked from my eyes at the thought of what was to come. And the pain. A mouth guard was forcefully clamped into our mouths as we began to scream from the mental wiping.

It felt like hours before it stopped. I was Nightshade of HYDRA. I had no place in the world.

Then the doctor began to speak in Russian. "Longing. Rusted. Seventeen. Daybreak. Furnace. Nine. Benign. Homecoming. One. Freight Car." The man paused. "Good morning, Assets."

"Ready to comply."


	3. Remembering

Just after Captain America: The Winter Soldier, outskirts of Washington DC

I stalked through the night, a black fitted leather jacket pulled snuggly around my uniform clad body. My hair was down and James had been insisting that I had it down when I wasn't on missions. Although I guess I should now, since I was on a mission: To find James.

When the radio burst into life at the diner I had been at saying SHIELD and HYDRA intelligence and gone all over the internet and how billions worth of technology had crashed into the Potomac, I had panicked. Then when I heard that Captain America and the Winter Soldier had also gone for a swim, I had been overcome with fury and worry. James had done so much for me, taken hits for me, punishments, beatings, missions, you name it had he's done it for me. And yes, that includes breakfast in bed.

Honestly, I felt like killing James myself at this rate as I turned into an alley, heading towards an abandoned warehouse we always used when we were in DC. My mission that I had literally just finished hours ago was horrendous and I knew I was going to ache tomorrow the amount of times that bastard slammed me into the wall. Broken glass and food wrappers glinted in the setting sun. As I pushed the door open, I pulled out a knife instinctually as I took silent steps into the seemingly empty room. I squinted so my eyes would adapt quicker to see a quivering form curled up in the far left corner. I hurriedly shut the door and ran over to them, just knowing that it was my soldat.

"Snowflake! Come on, Snowy, I'm here." I dropped to my knees in front of him as his head turned slowly at me. "Tell me what's going on, come on Snowflake, it's going to be okay." I whispered, my hands running through his hair.

James looked at me for a long time before talking. "Dislocated left shoulder, two cracked ribs, and several locations of bruising."

"Bohze moi, Snezhinki, what the hell happened?" I gasped was his face came fully into light as he sat up. Of course I had seen him bruised badly before, but nothing like this. His entire face was covered in all manners of abrasions, from bruises to scratches and his hair had been matted with blood. His knuckles were cracked and bruised showing signs of a rough fist fight. His guns were gone but from what could tell, his knives were still on him in the assorted places. He was slouched over, protecting his torso out of natural instinct and there was slashes through his uniform exposing bruised and scratched skin underneath.

"Captain America. He…he said he knew me. That my name was Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. And that he was will me till the end of the line." He sounded so broken as he listed off things. "I met him on a bridge round twenty hours ago, Pierce sent me to kill him and Black Widow, and as I was leaving he called me Bucky. I don't understand, doll. When he said that I knew that I had known him but Pierce just wiped me again." Tears ran down his black and blue cheeks. "When I asked him about it he completely lied to me about it. I'm just so confused. When he said things snippets would come back but I don't understand them, Berry, I don't bloody understand!" A harsh sob finally wracked his body and everyone finally understood the damage HYDRA could truly do.

Mentally, myself and James were wrecked beyond compare; our brains had been thrown in the blender so many times that their must be some kind of lasting physical damage there.

I felt a couple a tears slide down my cheeks as I saw the broken state that my partner was in. Carefully, I placed a kiss to his cheek, not wanting to hurt him in anyway.

"Let me reset your shoulder, Snowflake; at least that won't hurt as much then."

Silently he shifted so I could access his shoulder better. I braced my hands on the correct places of his shoulder.

"One, two, three." I whispered before I jerked my hands and set his shoulder back in place with a loud click that made me ever so slightly wince. I never had been good with bones making sounds. "We need to get out of here, Snowy, come on, there's a safe house on the outskirts of the city that should still be good then from there we can plan and move out. Probably either west or north; we can't get cornered with your picture everywhere at the moment." I was already planning ahead. "From there I can go and get supplies and make up to change our faces if the Nanos aren't there. But it would probably be handy to have it anyway. We can also replace your guns because they're going to want us back and we're not going to go. No more beatings or mind wipes. Come on James, we need to go."

James was silent. "Arianna, I need you to do something." He whispered as he pushed himself up with my help.

"Such as?"

He paused again. "I need you to run a background search on me. You're the tech between us."

I chewed my lower lip. "I'll do it tonight if not tomorrow. We also need to pick up groceries. Come on; the car's around the back and I've already removed the tracker. And changed the plates."

He hummed in response.

It hadn't taken us long to get to the car, or the safe house for that matter. Patching James up had been hard, seeing the true extent of his injuries. We hated seeing the other hurt and we both knew it. He surprisingly had demanded to cook but I suspected it was more to keep himself busy more than anything as I had went out and grabbed the essentials. He had made full on pasta with sauce by the time I had gotten back and had been in the middle of serving it when I had walked in.

James had always been a great cook and tonight had been no different. He ate dinner with an ice pack on his face as we needed the bruising gone as soon as possible. He was almost as quiet as when I had met him and in a way that terrified me.

I was tapping away at the computer as I began the background search on James. Partly dreading what the screen could show I clicked search. I saw every single link and they had '- The Smithsonian' next to them. A webpage came up and pictures flicked across the screen showing James and a Blonde man that must have been Captain America. There was a caption below the pictures saying 'Bucky Barnes and Steve Rodgers' or 'Bucky Barnes and the rest of the Howling Commandos'. Biting my lip I carefully compiled everything into a document and continued. At one point James or Bucky had come in with hot chocolate with more marshmallows then hot chocolate before walking out the room again. A couple more hours passed and my hair was in a very messy bun to keep it off my face. I printed off the first batch of information before quietly walking with file and hot chocolate in hand to Snowflake's room. James was sat on the bed, cleaning a knife as if it was his baby.

I leant against the door frame and watched him. "Hey Snowy." I gave a half smile.

He barely whispered in reply. "Hey Berry."

"I've done the main part of the BC but I thought you'd want to see this before we go."

He looked up from the folder to me. "Go?"

I sighed at flopped gracefully onto the bed next to him. "Go." I nodded. "Read the file."

I finished my hot chocolate as he finished the folder. He was completely silent for a while before he spoke. "Thank you."

He leaned back carefully on the bed and brought me down with him. "You're welcome." I whispered into his shoulder, careful not to touch any of his ribs or bruises for that matter.

"I'm remembering flashes, Berry. Your intel is right; I remember Steve being smaller. He always used to get into fights." James was quiet and nostalgic as he continued. "Never knew when to back down. And that thing he said to me, 'I'm with you till the end of the line', I remember saying that to him too."

I kissed his shoulder as I snuggled gently into him. James was the one and only person I had ever trusted in my life. Although, I may have trusted my parents but I wouldn't know since the Red Room took that away from me as well as everything else. In a way, that's what me trust James more; he never pushed me about my past and I had never done the same but we both knew about each other's, we just didn't acknowledge it as we knew sometimes things are better left in the past. I felt lips against my hair and smiled slightly. James always cared, even five and half years years ago when we first met, he cared even if it was a minuscule amount. Even with the programming fresh he cared.

"I'm sure in time you'll remember more, Snowflake. Just give it time, whether it's months or years I'll be here." I murmured and kissed his shoulder again. He kissed my hair in retaliation. I smiled. I always felt safe with James, even when he was freshly programmed and I was 'unfit' for missions and not programmed.

I twisted my head to look at him. My deep blue eyes met with his lighter blue ones and we shared a gentle smile. I kissed his cheek and I felt him do the same before I snuggled back down into him. It was moments before I was asleep.

Waking up the next morning to the smell of hot chocolate is single-handedly one of the best things I've done. James was sat with my head in his lap with steaming not chocolate next to him and his own in his hands.

"I didn't mean to wake you, Berry." He whispered and he ran his warm right hand through my hair just above my forehead.

"It's fine, Snowflake, don't worry. What's our itinerary for the day?"

"Well, I found the nanos and I went to the Smithsonian this morning." I twisted in his lap to look at him. "I had to Berry, he knew me and I knew him! I knew those men in the photos. I was someone before the Asset. Someone else apart from him."

"You'll always be someone apart from him, Snowflake, at least to me." I pressed a chaste kiss to his lips as I reached for my hot chocolate. I took a long sip and hummed with appreciation. James was watching me as I did.

"Thank you, Arianna."

I looked around to see him staring at me with emotion and honesty.

"You're welcome, James." There was an unspoken agreement between us that real names were saved for times of sincerity and seriousness; any other time was nicknames.

We eventually decided on using the nanos to make fake papers and then heading off to Europe. Mainly so we could lay low and know the area but also to get rid of our pasts. Also read, destroying HYDRA and the Red Room because we both knew that if there were more of us being trained it wasn't going to be pretty.

 _Sokovia, A year later, just before the battle_.

James and I had been under for a good year now and I could very gladly say the the Red Room was no more since we may or may not have blown it up and it's sister branches. HYDRA was also down many bases now and that was partly to do with the 'Avengers'. The ground began to shake and we both looked out of the safe house window to see people mechanically leaving the city or rather island. As in the city was flying. Could we not just get a break anymore? We didn't even look at each other before we were suiting up. James and I both knew the damage we had done and we both resolved to now helping other people in anyway we could. We slipped our facial gear on before staring at each other. It was almost like old times.

We ran out into the streets and quickly helped people in anyway we could. We caught glimpses of the Avengers and always managed to stay out of their sight; in honesty, neither of us were in the mood for a confrontation. Suddenly bloody robots filled the sky and we both knew that this was going to be a long mission. I shot down multiple saving a women and her child and quickly guided them to safety, muttering reassurances the whole time.

Suddenly the kid spoke to me. "What's your name?"

I looked at him sharply. "What?"

"Your name. What is it?"

I hesitated before fake smiling. "My name is Nightshade but you can call me Night if you want."

"That's so cool!" He squealed. "Did you here that Mummy? She said I could call her Night!"

"That's right, draga (darling). Thank you so much, Nightshade."

"My pleasure." I smiled slightly as they were able to get to the safe zone the Avengers had made. I saw Black Widow from across the square taking down several robots but saw several more sneaking up on her. I sighed. There goes no confrontation. I ran to her as she ran from the robots heading t

o where Winter had last said that Captain America was. We were keeping each other up to date on where the Avengers were to avoid getting seen. Regretfully, I filled him in on the fact that we were going to have to get seen in order to protect the civilians to our full potential.

"It's up to you, Night, but remember there's no going back from this. If you do it, I'll have to do it because it will be obvious once they've seen you. But I agree."

I sighed as he stopped over the comm link. "You know what to do, Winter."

I ran around the corner to see Black Widow and Captain America taking down a squadron of robots. One went to strike the Captain's head but I shot it down. They both turned to look at me with the sound of the gun shot as I calmly picked off the rest of the robots surrounding them. I could see Widow murmur something under her breath as she panted.

The Captain stood up straight despite his obvious fatigue. "Thank you. Who are you?"

The Widow answered for me. "She's Nightshade, Cap, your buddy's partner."

"She's right." I shrugged non-committedly.

"You know Bucky?" He whispered hopefully as he took a step forward.

I took a step back. "I know James, yes." I replied evenly.

"Is he here?" He went to take a step forward but Widow stopped him quietly.

"Tell them, Nightshade." I heard Winter whisper through the comms.

"Yes." I was blunt and to the point.

Before they could reply there was chatter through their comms and I too, that moment to find the next squadron which in reality found us.

I shot down as many as I could with one gun before resorting to physical combat. I weaved in and out and I was acutely aware of the silence behind me as I flipped another one to the ground as I wrapped my thighs around the next's neck and pulled out a dagger and twirled it around my hands to slash and stab down the others. I ran at the last robot as swung my thighs around its neck whilst simultaneously stabbing it through the head and twisted sharply causing me to fall into a forward roll which I then used to stand up. I walked towards the the pair and almost reached them when a helicarrier appeared just off the edge of the city.

"Fury, you son of bitch." I heard the Captain say faintly as I just reached them. Speakers blared to life from the ship.

"Is that Nightshade with you?" Nick Fury asked over the speakers.

"Yes it is, Nick, long time no see." I replied using the Captain's comm link which I temporarily stole.

"I could say the same. Why are you here?"

I rolled my eyes; the man was always blunt. "We were just laying low but then the city decided to go for a ride. This is definitely not planned, trust me."

"Can't say that I do, Nightshade, but it's decent to see you."

"Likewise to hear you, Nick."

"What's your frequency; we can hook both of you with the others."

I glanced at the pair next to me. Captain looked openly shocked whilst Widow was better but you could still see the shock in her expression.

"Hook us up, Colonel."


	4. Confrontation

Immediately chatter filled our comms as Fury paired our comms to the Avengers' ones.

 _"Who is this?"_

 _"How the hell are you on first name basis with Captain Hook?"_

 _"Why are you on our comm frequency?"_

 _"Where did you get this Frequency?"_

 _"Well if you waited, we would explain."_ I retorted sarcastically to the barrage of questions as I handed Cap's comm back which took with an air of suspicion. "Relax; I haven't done anything to it." I sighed to him.

 _"Still waiting for an explanation, lady."_ A voice continued.

" _Wait! So, I'm Nightshade and my partner, The Winter Soldier, are now on your frequency because of Nick."_

Different levels of cursing filled the line.

Widow interrupted. " _Cap doesn't like that kind of language, people._ " There was a smirk on her face and I felt like we'd missed an inside due to the chuckling on the link.

The chuckling quickly died down when Winter spoke. " _Five 'W's. Now"_

" _You weren't kidding._ " A voice stated sounding relatively shocked.

Flatly I replied. " _I'm Russian. Russians do not 'kid'."_

" _She's right, Stark_." Widow said beside me as she tore wires out of a robot's neck.

" _Robot army, Ultron (robot leader), Stark/Banner's fault, as long as you've been here, Loki's Scepter."_ A Sokovian male accented voice reeled off. " _I'm Quicksilver, also."_

" _Pleasure I hope._ " I said as James thanked Quicksilver.

Yet another squadron descended upon my location as I tore them to shreds; I emptied my guns into them with pin point precision. Flip, punch, kick, dodge, stab. Flip, punch, kick, dodge, stab. Flip, punch, kick, dodge, stab. Three more robots hit the ground. Twirl, stab, slash. Another one bites the dust. And another one. And another one.

Mentally I felt the song fill my head and I subconsciously moved to the rhythm. A few more slashes and stabs and the others fell. A family cowered away from both me and the robots. I slowly made my way to to them as if I was walking to a rigged bomb. The couple and their daughter looked fearfully up at me.

"Hey, it's going to be okay. The Avengers are here and so are my friend and myself." I told them firmly yet gently. "Here's what's going to happen. I need you to run to the street over there that's on the other side of the square, where I'm pointing, whilst I make sure you guys don't get hurt. Ready?" They nodded, terrified. I pulled them to their feet and handed the little girl to the father so he could carry her. "GO!"

They sprinted across the street as I followed quickly. Luckily, no robots attacked as we made our way to the safe zone. I hurried the family onto a life boat before nodding at an agent manning the aircraft. I almost jumped five feet in the air when small arms wrapped around my legs tightly. I looked down to see the little girl looking up at me innocently. Internally I broke at that; if she knew the real me, the assassin me, she would be running in terror, not hugging me.

" _The city isn't going to come down slowly, guys."_ Tony Stark's voice flooded the comms and we all froze. I could see Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch across the square do the same. I gently removed the girl from my legs and kissed her forehead like I'd seen people do in movies. She beamed brightly and ran back to her parents as I ran off the boat. " _Everybody needs to get to the church. STASAP."_

" _What the hell is 'STASAP'?_ " I shouted as I ran towards the centre of the city.

" _Sooner Than As Soon As Possible!"_ Everyone could clearly hear the 'duh' at the end.

I arrived at the church the same time that Winter did.

"Are you alright?" He asked me as he held me by the shoulders gently.

"Not injured. And you?" I looked him over briefly.

"Likewise."

I went for a smile. "Not how I though the evening would go."

A chuckle emanated from his chest. "I can't say I saw this happening either."

" _Hold up, did the Winter Soldier say something with a chuckle?_!"

"Watch it." Both of us said in unison before sharing a slight smile.

We entered the church to see the others already in there.

"Are you both okay? What took you so long?" Captain America questioned us the moment he turned around.

"I was out by the boats."

"Some people were trapped."

We answered him in turn as Hawkeye looked at us ludicrously. "Since when did world famous assassins care about citizens."

Winter glared harshly at the archer. "Since we broke away from HYDRA."

I sent the archer my own withering glare. "It would be wise to not bring it up."

Hawkeye paled drastically as did a couple other of the people present.

"I can see why they called you guys WinterNight." Stark muttered under his face plate.

Winter and I looked at each other. "WinterNight?"

"It's what the intelligence community, those who believe you exist, call you." Stark looked at me as he answered before swiftly changing the subject. "Here's the drill. Robot touches core, we fail. Protect it."

Failure was not accepted at HYDRA and didn't happen in the Red Room. No robot is going to that core.

A robot that was bigger than the rest floated into our sight.

Thor shouted grasping his hammer tightly. "Ultron! Is that the best you can do?"

"No no no, Asgardian. This is the best I can do." Ultron raised up his arms and robots surrounded the church on all sides as they clambered over wreckage and buildings alike to get to us. "This is just what I wanted. All of me, against all of you. How could you possibly hope to stop me?"

Tony Stark looked at the Avengers and surprisingly glanced at us as well. "Like the old man said, together."

The battle that ensued was probably the most in sync I'd ever been subjected to and that was saying something. The Avengers worked almost as fluidly as Winter and I did, twirling in and out of each other killing off the robots before they even made it anywhere near the core. As for myself and Winter, we were simply a single machine. He would punch or kick a robot in my direction so I could slash the wires through or vice versa. Sometimes we would finish off the robots by ourselves. Suddenly Cap flipped horizontally through the air leaving a gap next to us so he could fight them on the steps below us. Winter and I immediately went back to back to cover the space as we spun and twirled around each other slowly speeding up on each turn we slashed and stabbed more robots then the last. The robots seemed to focus on us as piles of debris built themselves high around us. My peripheral vision showed me that some of the Avengers were watching us whilst destroying the occasional robot. I saw one creep up behind Cap and noticed that no one would be able to stop it before it attacked. Grabbing a throwing knife from my right shoulder sheath with my left hand I threw it with perfect accuracy. Cap straightened up in horror when he saw my knife hurtling towards him and made eye contact with me as it soar past his ear and into the robot which had been seconds from killing the Captain. Said captain looked between the knife and me before nodding.

"Thank me later Cap;" I shouted over the sounds of battle. "I'm too busy to make a snide comeback."

Winter snorted behind me as he threw a robot over our heads. "Too busy for comebacks, Nightshade? Whatever would have our SO said?"

We had killed Volskov in complete cold blood but one thing we didn't hate about him was his flair for theatrics. At the same time that was also the thing we had hated most about him.

"I couldn't give a flying fuck what he would have said." I replied as I stabbed a robot between the eyes. Whilst all this had been going on, we hadn't lost our pace although we both knew we would begin to tire soon. "Winter duck!" I called as I swung sword out of its sheath and through the air around us taking out a minimum of four robots as Winter straightened up again. Our dance continued as we moved closer to Thor to get away from the obstructing metal piles at our feet.

"WinterNight! Duck!" Scarlett Witch called but on instinct we had already ducked as a group of robots flew over our heads surrounded by red tendrils of power.

My dear sword slashed through robot upon robot before the wave ended. I turned immediately to Winter and checked him over for wounds. There was a very shallow gash on his right arm which I promptly ignored, knowing it would be gone by morning.

"You two certainly like to put on a show don't you?" Stark remarked as he flipped up his face plate.

Thor nodded. "The man of iron is quite right; it was very enjoyable to watch the way you fought together."

Winter and I shared a glance that only the two of us knew to be expressing our awkwardness. "We were just doing what had to be done since the captain moved."

"Still, you looked badass doing it." Quicksilver quipped in his strong Sokovian accent with a shrug of his shoulders.

A roar in the distance showed the Hulk terrorising the robots and I smirked ever so slightly before it disappeared. Thor stormed out of the church as he said that the robots would try to leave the city.

" _We can't let 'em!"_ Stark shouted as his face plate snapped back in place. " _Not even one! Rhodey!"_

" _Already on it, Tony."_ A voice replied in the comms and gun fire could be heard in the distance.

Captain America then took charge. "We gotta move out. Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats and I'll sweep for stragglers."

"What about the core?" Hawkeye asked.

Scarlett Witch spoke up. "I will protect it. It is my job."

She and Hawkeye shared a nod and understanding passed between the two of them.

Cap, Widow and Hawkeye ran off towards the boats, taking any stragglers they found. A flash of silver caught my eye and I forcefully shoved Winter behind me as I slashed through a robot that would have hit Winter's neck.

"Spasibo." He whispered as he stepped next to me again.

I nodded. "You guys need to get to safe zone and protect the people. Go."

Quicksilver turned to Scarlett. "I can't leave you here."

"Go. I'll stay with her." I told him. He looked uncertain.

A robot flew in to hit the core but Scarlett intercepted it with her magic and destroyed it by tearing it in half. "Go. I can handle myself. Come back for me when everyone else is off, not before. Do you understand?"

Quicksilver chuckled. "You know, I am twelve minutes older than you."

Scarlett smiled. "Go."

Quicksilver changed to a blur as he disappeared in the direction that Winter had gone. I turned to Scarlett Witch with a slight smile. "Do you need me to stay or can I go help the others?"

"Go," she smiled in return. "I'll call if I need it."

I nodded once before gunning towards the safe zone. I skidded into the plaza just as Hawkeye ran to get a boy that was trapped. I also ran in that direction as a small jet soared over head and began shooting. I skidded in behind Hawkeye just as a silver blur did the same moments before I felt the bullets hit my back. I fell, staggering forward from the impact. Both Hawkeye and Quicksilver spun to see me falling. Quicksilver saw me and caught me. I blinked multiple times. I could feel the bullets in my shoulder tear through the tissue simultaneously as catcher hoisted me up.

I panted through the pain. "Bullet… proof… armour." I swayed dangerously so Quicksilver quickly caught my waist, avoiding my shoulders.

"You sacrificed yourself for us." Hawkeye whispered, still holding the child in his arms.

"You would do the same." I murmured as blood poured at a dangerous rate from my shoulders.

"Berry!" I heard Winter shout somewhere. I heard heavy footfall and my eyes flickered closed before I snapped them open again.

Strong arms scooped me up and I knew that it wasn't Winter. Probably Quicksilver, I thought absently. In a flash we were on the boat and I knew it to be true.

"Hang in there, Night." Quicksilver muttered as he shouted for medics. "The Winter Soldier is coming."

At that a ghost of a smile flickered across my face and sure enough Winter's face soon appeared in my vision. "You just had to go and be bloody selfless didn't you, doll? Do you like giving me heart attacks or something? You're going to be okay, so stay awake. The medics are bringing their kit and I'll fix you up okay? They're almost here, trust me. After this I will tie you down somewhere so you can't move because that way you can't get hurt. You definitely love giving me heart attacks. You know you're supposed to respect your elders? Because biologically I'm about two years older that you and I'm technically ninety eight apparently so respect me by not giving me heart attacks." Winter had stripped off his facial gear and had removed mine from my neck as he was rambling.

The other Avengers that had crowded around us, especially Cap, were staring slack jawed at how much James was saying. They had gone from only ever hearing him say one word sentences to multi sentence rambling.

"He…he speaks more than one word at a time?" Stark whispered, no longer in his suit as he now adorned a Black Sabbath t-shirt and grease stained jeans.

I smiled softly at Stark. "Only when he is experiencing any high emotions normally."

"Nightshade just smiled…" Stark whispered to Hawkeye like it was a huge conspiracy.

"We're all only human deep down, Mr Stark. Even Mr Asgardian over there to a degree." I hissed as James removed my bodice piece leaving me in my black figure hugging vest top. He muttered an apology.

"Call me Tony."

"Yeah, I'm not tell you my name in return." I snorted before wincing at the slight movement it made to my shoulders.

James took the med kit from the medic and when said medic went to touch me I immediately shrunk back.

"I want Winter to do it."

The medic insisted. "I can guarantee that I am much more qualified to…" He faltered at the sharp glare I was giving him despite how woozy I was beginning got feel.

"I can do it." James said firmly.

"I insist…" The medic continued only to be interrupted by Tony.

"Look, dude, they've been looking after each other for a long ass time and you really don't want to be enemies with the two best assassins on the planet." Factually Tony stated.

The medic had quickly scurried away after that.

James had pulled down the straps of my bra and vest top so they were out of the way and was now rummaging through the medical kit before pulling out gloves and tweezers.

He made eye contact with me. "Brace." He said before plunging the tweezers into my left shoulder and pulling out the bullet. I growled in pain before he placed the bullet in a small bag Quicksilver had gotten ready for it. Scarlett Witch, who had turned up at some point without me realising quickly pressed a bandage to the wound to prevent further blood loss. Stitches were stitched over the wound by James before Scarlett placed the bandage pad over it again and he quickly got bandage wrapping and wrapped a shoulder spica. The same happened to my other shoulder and oh so very gently he moved my straps back up.

As gentle as he always was when I got hurt, he stood up with me in his arms before walking off the boat with me in his arms as we arrived. The Avengers watched in scarcely veiled shock, even Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch who 'knew' us. Quickly Tony stepped off the boat and followed as did the others. My eyes flickered shut before I pulled them back open.

"That's it Berry. Just a little longer I promise." James whispered into my hair as agents held open doors for us as he walked through, staring after us with mixed emotions. I vaguely realised my thought rate slowing down from fatigue I guess and blood loss.

"Is that WinterNight?" A guy asked to his partner in awe as we walked past. I couldn't help but blush at the way people had been treating us today. Children hugging me and fully grown and trained again saying my name in awe was completely overwhelming. My name had only ever been whispered in fear, said by James or shouted in an order. The only people that even touched me were James, torturers or Pierce when he wanted something.

"What the hell happened?" I heard Nick Fury shout when he saw us as James walked on deck with me in his arms

"Nick," I moaned. "You're being loud and grumpy. Stop it." I ordered and even with my eyes closed I could tell the whole helicarrier was holding their breath as no one ever talked to Fury that way.

"Sorry." He muttered. "What happened?" The entire room stared in shock.

"Some rogue bird went to fire on Hawkeye and both Quicksilver and I shielded him but I took the outside since my suit it bullet proof armour. It didn't save my shoulders though completely." I rambled off.

"Bullet per shoulder, no exit wounds." James' voice rumbled above me.

"Take care of her, Barnes." I heard Nick say as my consciousness flickered. "And you, stay awake." He gently whacked my forehead.

I opened my eyes and looked up at him. "But I wanna sleep." I pouted and I could've sworn Fury's resolve almost cracked there and then.

"You can sleep when you're dead. Rest now, but don't sleep."

I muttered uncomplimentary things in Russian about the Director under my breath and I could see James smile when he heard.

"Most of those are probably accurate." He whispered in my ear.

He drew back a chair at the big table and gently lowered us into it as he altered my position so I could be more comfy. I curled up as much as I could without causing my shoulders too much pain. Playful voices filled the room as the Avengers trickled in, wearing relatively normal clothes minus Scarlett Witch who had changed her base clothes but kept her red jacket from earlier.

"Hey." I smiled slightly when they came in and James' lips quirked slightly at the corners when he saw Cap – sorry, Steve – walk in.

Scarlett Witch quickly walked over to me and gave me a tight yet gentle hug. She pulled back with a smile. "Thank you for saving my brother." She gave a genuine smile that made her seem her age rather than someone older. "I'm Wanda." She held her hand by mine so I could shake it gently.

I looked up to James and he nodded but told me that it was my choice.

I looked at Wanda and gave a little smile. "My name's Arianna." I breathed out a shaky breath after I said that an instantly looked around for Volskov even though I'd killed him, his threat had always stuck with me when I met people.

James seemed to understand as he whispered in my ear. "Relax, Berry; he's not getting to you ever and you're safe with me."

I smiled and relaxed back into him as he wrapped his metal arm around my waist to keep me secure.

"Your name suits you well, Arianna." Wanda sat next to us to James' left so I could see her easily from my position.

"Thank you." I looked at the others. "Can I know your names or is that classified meaning I have to hack into SHIELD again?"

Tony looked like a kid at Christmas. "You mean you hack into SHIELD too? This is great. You are my new favourite assassin for the week! See Feathers! I told you I wasn't the only person who hacked into SHIELD!"

'Feathers', who turned out to be Hawkeye, rolled his eyes. "I'm not getting involved."

"Boo, you whore." I said to him.

Most of the people in earshot froze. "Did you just quote _Mean Girls_ at me?"

"Did I stutter?"

Tony coughed. "Who would have known the world's most dangerous female assassin watched chick flicks?"

"We would." Both Widow and I spoke at the same time causing an uneasy look between us. We both knew why we would know and both of us were now regretting saying anything.

"Of course you two would." Tony rolled his brown orbs as he plopped into a seat. "Is there some secret all girls assassin club where you meet up every Wednesday and wear pink whilst watching chick flicks or something?"

"Or something." Widow replied. "Getting back on subject, I'm Natasha." She gave a quirk of the lips and when I replied in kind we had a sort of understanding.

"My name is Pietro Maximoff, Wanda's older twin." Quicksilver chimed in before sitting next to his sister, filling the gap between Wanda and Tony.

"Steve Rodgers, ma'am." Steve smiled but I frowned.

"Don't call me ma'am."

"Sorry Arianna."

I shook my head to show him that it was fine.

Hawkeye spoke next. "Clint Barton, resident archer of the Avengers."

"Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk." A dark haired man said from his seat next to Tony.

Thor spoke next "I am Thor, son of Odin and prince of Asgard." He puffed up his chest in pride.

I smiled through a grimace at Thor's loud, booming voice. The other members introduced themselves as Vision, Colonel 'Rhodey' Rhodes, and the agent hovering by Fury constantly was Maria Hill. Light conversation flowed amongst us as Steve and I exchange stories about James. He seemed to groan at a lot of them because in fairness, most of the stories we were telling were embarrassing. James' fingers ran their way through my hair after he had gently teased it out of plait it had been in.

Eventually Fury had agreed to let me sleep as long as James was there to watch me.

That was the best thing of the day. Simply being told to sleep


	5. History

**_One year and a bit later, week after CA: Civil War_**

I was furious. There was no other way to put it. I had told James that we needed to split up now we had done so and survived fine for six months. We both had a basic cell phone on us which we called from pay phones. Every time we had talked we spoke in a different language. For example, in our last conversation I spoke German and he spoke Romanian. The time before that it was French and Russian. Our languages always represented where we were. We were careful to cover our tracks for both the American government and any traces of HYDRA left.

Anyway, I had been laying low in Moscow when I yet again, had found out via the radio at a diner. I was starting to think I should avoid diners altogether the amount of bad news I was receiving when I was in them. My infuriated steps carried me through Wakanda's streets. I was clad in my uniform with my jacket flapping around my waist as I stormed up the steps to the compound. Whispers surrounded me, saying my name or voicing remarks about me and judgements. Honestly, I couldn't have cared less in that moment what they were saying; I was finding my soldat and beating some sense into him. The doors slammed open by my hand as I strode up to a frightened receptionist.

"Where is he?" Warning undertones filled my voice as I stood expectantly in front of her.

"Tenth floor!" She squeaked in a Wakandan accent.

"Thank you." I sweetly smiled before heading to the elevator and pressing the correct button. The ride seemed way too long as my angry thoughts ran rampage through my mind. How dare they destroy Bucharest, blow up an airport and leave a whole tonne of destruction along the way?! I knew the incident in Vienna wasn't him because he had been in Romania at the time. Still, fury raged within me as I stepped out of the elevator.

I saw Steve and James talking and I stormed over to them. Steve turned around just as I was about to reach them and went for a surprised look. James did the same just in perfect timing for me to punch him.

Steve looked shocked as James cradled his nose, trying to staunch the blood flow.

Words flew out of my mouth in Russian as my accent truly slipped through. "What the bloody hell were you thinking? You get yourself bloody framed for terrorism in Vienna, destroy good part of central Bucharest, blow up a god damn airport and then lose an arm! Are you insane? You could have died, James Buchanan Barnes! There's a world wide man hunt going on for you right now. You always go on about how I'm giving you heart attacks but it's a two way street! Every time you get hurt I'm immediately thinking if it's the last time I'm going to hear about you apart from your damn eulogy! I can't understand it, James, how fucking hard is it to stay out of bloody trouble? I literally spoke to you hours before you get framed for blowing up some building in Vienna that happened to be full of politicians and half of the Avengers. Hours, James, hours. The thought of you dying terrifies me!" I could feel tears building up in my eyes. "Not only did you get yourself in trouble but six other damn people! I'm pretty sure Mister Patriot here wasn't keen on defying the law! He did it because of loyalty to you. Why can't you just stay out of god damn trouble for once?" Tears ran in rivers down my cheeks as I stared at him.

He looked so guilty standing there I almost felt even more tears building up. Steve looked completely lost at what had just happened but he seemed to be piecing it together. I saw the other Avengers here walk in probably hearing the commotion. Surprisingly I saw Natasha there as well.

"Hey Arianna," Wanda greeted. "What's going on?"

I gave a weak watery humourless laugh. "This person has been an idiot and I was just making sure he knew."

"I may be an idiot, but I'm your idiot." James said from behind me as his arms wrapped around my waist tightly and his head dipped into my hair.

I tensed. "My idiot?"

He spun me around, ignoring everyone else in the room "I love you."

"What?" My voice was barely a whisper.

"Dude! Have you never told her that you love her? Why the hell not!" A man that went by Falcon said loudly and Natasha, Wanda and Pietro turned and said to him:

"Love is for children."

"And I'm the biggest child you've ever met." James whispered in my ear as he pulled me close.

A single tear slid from my eye. "I love you too." I whispered almost silently in his ear. The reaction was instantaneous; James pulled me back just far enough so our lips met.

They moved in perfect harmony and I heard a couple of wolf whistles behind us and I smiled into the kiss. My hands tangled into his hair before sliding around to cup his face. I pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of his mouth before pulling away. I looked at him before hugging him tightly, my head fitting snugly into his shoulder.

"Huh." I heard Falcon say. "Sam Wilson, by the way."

"Arianna." I replied but I didn't look at him.

"It's a pleasure to meet the lady Winter Wonderland never shuts up about." He smiled when I twisted in James' arms so I could see everyone else.

"Never shut up about me, eh?" I looked, eyebrow raised, up at James and he just shrugged.

"It was constant." Pietro rolled his eyes. "It was always 'Do you know if Berry's okay?' or 'Berry is going to murder me.'. It was all we ever heard!"

I laughed slightly. "Well we are going to spar later." I smirked when I felt James tense. "Don't worry I'll go easy on you."

"I should hope so! You are one scarily trained girl." Sam said.

"I guess Tony showed you the footage then."

"You are a very talented individual, Miss Nightsh… Ari!?" A Wakandan male walked in that carried an air of authority and respect. He stared at me in shock, placing his files on the counter of the small kitchenette.

"And you are?" I cocked my head ever so slightly.

"You really don't remember me?" He asked and I shook my head. "My name is T'Challa, King of Wakanda."

T'Challa. T'Challa. It sounded familiar as I sounded out the name in my head.

"T'Challa?" I rolled the name on my tongue. "It sounds familiar but I don't know why." I frowned.

T'Challa looked slightly defeated before brushing it aside. "Perhaps we should sit down." He gestured to the arrangement of seats and sofas to my right which I hadn't noticed when I had come in.

I walked over to the sofas and sat down with T'Challa. "So…"

"You disappeared when you were four." He started as James settled in beside me. "Our families were good friends and when you disappeared your parents panicked. They called my father and asked if we could help them search for you."

"I had a family?" I asked quietly.

"Yes, Anastasia and Alexander Katyna."

"My family had a thing for names beginning with A, didn't they?"

T'Challa smiled slightly. "I suppose so. Either way, your parents were a very well respected family in Russia. Both of our families were in the metal business and often hosted galas together. I was only nine when you disappeared and I didn't fully understand what was going on. As children we would always sneak away from the table or galas and hide so we wouldn't have to do the formal speeches. I always called you Ari and you called me-"

"Challie. I called you Challie, didn't I?" I looked at him squarely.

"You did." He smiled.

I smiled awkwardly in return. "I remember flashes now, I remember hiding in conference rooms under tables. I also remember you hitting you head on a chair once doing that."

"You're kidding me? The king literally has catlike grace!" Sam objected.

T'Challa seemed to be embarrassed. "Of course you'd remember that first."

"Of course she would, Berry always remembers the embarrassing or awkward things before anything else." James smiled next to me.

"You sound like you speaking from experience, Buck." Steve looked at James imploringly.

James smirked. "Maybe."

I laughed and leant against him. "I bet my stories about him are more embarrassing than yours." I challenged Steve.

"You're on." He gave a bark of laughter before he began to talk. "Back before the war, Buck set up a double date for us with these two dames on Coney Island."

James groaned. "Not this."

I grinned. "Oh yes this. Please continue Steve."

"He had a date called Dolores, he called her Dot, and he was insistent that he would win this stuffed toy for her so he ended up spending our train money on getting that toy for her. When he realised that we now had no money for the train, he was like 'Oh, uh, Steve? We have no train money. Can you sing?' We had cracked up when he said that but Dolores was furious had slapped him with this toy multiple times."

Everyone laughed, even T'Challa chuckled a bit.

"I can beat that." I smiled slightly. "We were on an undercover mission about three years ago and it was coming up to Independence Day so the people in the house next to our safe house had invited us over. We had agreed, needing to get to know them for the mission. Anyway, they had some of the squirty cream stuff you get in a can, yeah? So Snowflake didn't know what it was so when the man passed it to him to use, he pressed the trigger with the can upright causing cream to go all over his face. I think I have a picture somewhere on one of the fake accounts." Sam was struggling to breathe at the thought of The Winter Soldier being covered in whipped cream. "The look of sheer surprise on his face was hilarious."

Other people joined in laughing along.

Sam now had tears running down his face. "So let's get this straight. The Winter Soldier got…got…" He broke down laughing again. "Got beaten by a whipped cream can?!"

"I hate you, Berry." James hid is tomato red face in my hair as I laughed gently.

I smiled and turned to him. "No, you don't."

He grumbled. "Sometimes I do. Like now."

"But you love me." I laughed.

He pressed a kiss to my cheek in retaliation and confirmation.

So that's how that night went: Steve and I telling very embarrassing stories about James until we called it time.

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Waking up the next morning to see everyone passed out around me was one of the most heart warming things I had ever seen, not that it was exactly hard but still my point remained. I smiled slightly at the thought of how far we'd come. Before between James and I one of us always stayed awake to keep watch, even if we were in the middle of no where in a safe house. But now here we were, comfortably sleeping in a place we didn't know surrounded by people who could pose a clear threat. I went to move to stand up but strong arms tightened around me. I glanced down at my torso to see James' arm wrapped tightly around my hips.

"Moya Yagoda." (My Berry.) He muttered as his right arm moved up to my shoulders and pulled me back down into his chest. I rested the side of my face into the crease between his neck and shoulder.

Sleepiness overtook me again as I faintly whispered a reply. "Ya lyublyu tebya." (I love you.) My eyes fluttered closed.

I woke up to the sounds of whispers in front of us as my eyes remained closed.

"Should we wake them?" A voice said.

"They look peaceful, something hard to be in our line of work." A man's voice replied.

A female agreed with him. "That's true. I'm surprised they're asleep at all; from the data spilled a couple of years ago, they're extremely protective of each other."

"How'd you find that?"

"I had Stark help me out."

"Explains a lot. Back to the point, what are we going to do? They do need to eat at some point because not even super assassins can go days without food." A different voice said.

The female spoke again. "Actually yes they can. I can guarantee that Arianna had been trained to go for at least a week without food and I know that Barnes can. It's a matter of whether they want to eat or not."

"I will never get over the craziness of Russian Assassin training, geez."

The voices stopped as I repositioned my head on James' shoulder.

"Phew. I did not want to be dealing with grumpy assassins mad at us for watching them sleep."

"Keep your voice down, Sam!" A younger female's voice hissed.

"We should wake them though. Arianna's going to be feeling tired from the time zone difference and Buck would want to be up if she's up." I could tell that was Steve.

"It's a time zone difference of about an hour or two, Cap, I wouldn't be too worried." The original male spoke.

"She's also trained to go weeks without sleep." The female said again.

During all this I could tell that James had woken up to by the slight difference in his heart beat. Careful to keep it hidden, I gently began tapping James in morse code.

 _"Morning."_

 _"Morning, Berry."_

 _"When did you wake up?"_

 _"Around Russian assassin training."_

 _"Are we going to brush it off or be mad about it?"_

 _"Whatever you want to do, Doll."_

 _"Helpful, darling, truly."_ I could feel his chest tense as he tried not to smile.

 _"Always am."_

 _"We could always pretend to be mad and then spar to show them not to do it again."_

 _"They've already seen footage, Berry."_

I retained a snort. " _But nothing beats the real thing."_

 _"What's the plan then, doll face?"_

A tiny smile appeared on my face and I was suddenly very grateful for fact that my hair was covering my face slightly. " _I'll pretend to wake up and then blank them. Wait a few minutes then you can wake up and be angry that I'm not there. Then you find me and drag me to the training room."_

 _"That could work."_

 _"I love you."_ I tapped and kissed his cheek as I pretended to wake up.

I fluttered my eyes open to see them all there apart from T'Challa and a man named Scott Lang who I had been introduced to last night.

"Morning, Arianna." Sam smiled nervously.

I just blankly looked at him before walking off to the kitchen.

"We're screwed." I heard him say and I had the slightest smirk on my face. This might just work. I schooled my expression as I filled a glass with water and heard the others come into the room.

"Arianna, don't be mad; they just wanted to make sure you were okay." Natasha came and stood next to me.

I hummed blankly and sipped my water. I turned and leant against the counter and made eye contact with each member in the room.

"We wanted to make sure that you weren't going to starve." Pietro sped to my other side. I looked at him stoically as I sipped my water again.

"Don't be mad, Arianna, we were just looking out for you and Buck." I sent my blank stare at the Captain and changed it to a glare. He flinched back and looked away.

A shout sounded from the other room. "Yagoda? Yagoda!" James voice rang clear into the room.

There was silence for a full minute and I could tell the other people in the room became worried at what it could mean. Suddenly the open plan living space filled with footsteps that I distinctly knew to be James'. Aforementioned man stormed into the room and Steve immediately tried to intercept him. And failed immediately. James just span his arm in Steve's grip causing Steve to stumble back as he lost his grip. I maintained eye contact with James as I took another sip. I placed my glass on the side as he stood looking down at me as he was barely an inch from touching me. Natasha had straightened up in a casual defensive position, preparing for the worst. James mechanically took a step back and picked me up with just his right arm as if he was carrying a baby and his hand out in front of us to open doors and shove things out the way as I held my self up with my legs. Shouts came from behind us as footsteps followed. He stayed in character the entire time, his signature icy glare focusing in on anything that wasn't me. When we reached the training room, there was nobody there.

James let his forearm full allowing my legs to hit the floor. Gracefully I span away, narrowly missing a swipe aimed at my legs. I narrowed my eyes at the dirty trick. James' back was to the door and he shot me a smug smirk as he heard the others running down the hallway. He launched himself at me which caused me to flip backwards to get away. He threw a punch out but I blocked it with my elbow before grabbing the offending arm and pulling it tight to spin into him so I could deliver a harsh jab to his sternum. He let out a breath and stepped backwards I took the time to run at him and grab his shoulders. He spun sharply to his left breaking my grip before I could deliver a blow. Instantly we both threw blows, exchanging them quicker than most could keep up with. It was like an intricate dance as we moved around each other. He suddenly caught my wrists and brought me in close before flipping me over his head. I landed roughly three metres away and I had definitely bruised a rib from that as I had landed awkwardly, not able to role it out.

A heavy weight made itself known as it settled on my thighs and a cold pressure pushed against my neck. I opened my eyes to see James straddling me with one of my knives to my neck. There was no bigger embarrassment to an assassin than to be beaten with their own knife.

Good job I wasn't beaten yet then.

I gently pushed his wrist away from my shoulder, taking the knife away with it before leaning up so my lips were by his ear.

I lowered my voice to a sultry tone. "That's no way to treat your girl now is it, Serge?" I punctuated it with a gentle nip on his ear lobe.

He tensed his body but that was enough for me to grab his wrist and flip us over making our roles reversed only I took the knife and put it back on my boot sheath. Pinning his hands in place by his wrist above his head caused my body to be much closer to his than before.

"Come on, Serge." I pressed a slow kiss to his left cheek, pushing my body flush against his. I could feel him twisting his wrist trying to free but the way I was holding him, if he simply overpowered me he would dislocate his wrist which he couldn't risk. I gently pressed a feather of a kiss to his ear lobe and jumped back, doing a backwards hand spring to evade any hits James may do. He kicked out at me which I countered with my knee and used it to make him drop into a lunge. The position left him vulnerable which I took full advantage of. I stepped on his leg with my right and then swung my legs and clamped down hard on his neck and twisted down sending us both to the floor. I loosened my legs on impact to avoid any injury that I could potentially cause considering the way my legs were around him. I quickly tightened them again though and sat upright to I could look down at James.

"What did I say about kicking first?" I whispered slowly.

James eyes locked on mine. "Something about not doing it." He croaked as I adjusted my upper leg.

"Good Snowflake." I whispered again, my voice silky smooth despite the fact that I'd only woken up less than an hour ago.

"Angel, as much as I enjoy your legs being wrapped around me, can you let me go?" James asked as evenly as he could.

I smirked wickedly. "But sweetheart, I did say that I was mad at you for what you've done. Putting yourself in so much danger. It almost gave me a heart attack." I leaned in close. "You're going to have to beg."

He almost choked on air. "Berry, you can not be serious?!" We were both very aware of the growing audience.

I shook my head. "I don't make empty threats, requests or promises, Snowy, if it helps you can always do it in another language." I curled my torso allowing me to kiss his nose.

Pulling away, I saw James do the expression I had only ever seen on him once. Puppy eyes. His bottom lip was jutted out slightly and he had a shine to his eyes. I swear to all the shit I've done, it was the most adorable thing that I'd ever seen. I almost felt my resolve crumble to a thousand pieces.

"No, Snowflake, don't do that." I whispered and the look seemingly intensified and I swear I almost broke. "Snezhinki, no. All you have to do is beg, and I've said you can do it in any language."

He drew in a shaky breath as he began to get uncomfortable. "Noapte," he had chosen Romanian then. "vă rog, și mă rog cu toată inima mea că te iubește să-mi dai drumul. Frumusețea ta nu încetează să mă uimească încă, aș prefera să te văd de sus. Deși, cred că eu trebuie să ceară cu umilință iertare pentru prostia mea prostule și pledează pentru tine pentru a elimina picioarele de la gâtul meu." He bit his lower lip. "Printesa mea." _(Night, please, and I pray with all my heart that loves you for you to let me go. Your beauty never ceases to astound me yet I would much prefer to see you from above. Although, I suppose that I must most humbly ask for forgiveness for my dumbass stupidity and plead for you to remove your legs from my neck. My princess.)_

My bit my lower lip as tears threatened to fall. I quickly removed my legs from his neck. I blinked back the tears and quickly stood up. I brushed past Natasha whose expression held understanding. She knew why I was tearing up and it wasn't just because of how nice James had just been.

When you first start at the Red Room, they numb through your emotions. Assets weren't to have flaws and emotion was seen as a flaw. What James had just done had made me question everything. He loved me and what scared me the most was that I was falling fast into love with him. I had built up my walls sky high during my years at the Red Room, all of them, and here was this one man destroying them all. I had known James for over seven and a half years and he was tearing down my defences and causing me to fall head over heels in love with him. In honesty, the last few years we had had a flirty relationship; we had been doing the kisses on the cheeks and foreheads, occasionally the chaste one to the lips but that was it.

I found that I had made my way to the kitchen from earlier and quietly sat down at the table. I stared at my hands as the tears finally spilt over, blurring my vision. I wasn't supposed to be lovable. I wasn't supposed to have a place in the world. That's what HYDRA and the Red Room always told me. That I have no place in the world yet there was one man seemingly ready to defy all expectations for a broken assassin. Love is for children. The words swam in my head as well as his reply. And I'm the biggest child you've ever met. I knew he hadn't been lying when he said he loved me. I was a trained human lie detector and one that didn't make mistakes. I felt like a computer with faulty programming. The thoughts in my brain swirled around at high speeds as the tears continued to fall.

I don't know how long I was there before almost silent footsteps entered the room with the grace of a lady who had been trained in the Red Room. I knew it was Natasha by the way she walked because it was so similar to the way I walked. Her arms wrapped around my shoulders as I leant into the older assassin. She didn't need to say anything because she already knew and that was what I liked about Natasha, even for the mere twenty four hours that I had officially met her for before yesterday, we just understood each other. It was almost definitely down to sharing the experience of Red Room training but also it was just one of those things. Natasha had guided me to the sofa at one point, still not saying anything and had set us up so I was lying in my side with my head in her lap whilst she stoked my hair. She hummed soft Russian lullabies that I vaguely remembered from a long time ago. I closed my burning eyes as I lay there just listening to her as she played with my hair. I felt myself relax and give the slightest of smiles. Natasha seemed like an older sister and in that moment, I honestly couldn't give a damn about what the Red Room had said to either of us nor what anyone had said after.

We did have a place in the place in the world and emotions were only human.

I'm not entirely sure how long we were led like that but at one point I had drifted back to sleep despite my internal protests. The emotional rollercoaster of a day had wiped my brain clear of energy. When I woke up for the third time that day, my head was still in Natasha's lap I realised however the other Avengers were walking in. I would have sat up and opened my eyes but the sofa and my pillow happened to be rather comfy.

"How's she doing? Is she okay? I didn't think." I recognised the voice speaking as the one that belonged to James. His voice was thick with emotion and I felt a fresh batch of tears threaten to rise.

"She's fine," Natasha's voice sounded from above me quietly. "Her mind just reverted back to her training days. It happened to me when Clint first got me from the KGB and treated me like a genuine person." She admitted.

"I hope she's okay." I heard him whisper and felt him place a light kiss to my temple.

"I swear I'm going to murder those bastards." I thought I heard Pietro growl from my right somewhere.

"Already done." James replied quietly. I felt him take my feet and slide under them as he sat on the sofa.

"What do you mean, Buck?" Steve's authoritative voice resonated around the room.

"Exactly what it sounds like. After DC, Arianna and I tracked down and destroyed the remnants of HYDRA which included the Red Room. HYDRA had been funding the Red Room for decades before I met her. It was like a savage human growth market. The Red Room trained girls and then sold them for the highest bidder. She's the youngest."

I shifted slightly causing Natasha to hum quietly again and continue playing with my hair.

"T'Challa said last night that she had only been four." Wanda's voice whispered in horror.

"Even I was older than that; I was about eight or so." Natasha murmured above me quietly.

"Yeah well," I muttered. "What's done is done."

Natasha ceased to hum now that I was obviously awake but didn't cease her hand movements through my hair and in an instant

James snapped his head to mine. "Are you okay, doll?" He whispered. For all intent purposes, he looked like a wounded puppy as he looked down at me.

I shimmied on the sofa so I could sit up. Promptly I held onto James tightly as shifted to get comfortable. "I'm okay." I murmured into his neck.

His arm wound itself tightly like a vice around my body as he held me close. "I'm sorry, baby, I didn't think." He shakily exhaled into my hair.

"I trust you." I murmured again against his neck. If possible he pulled me closer and I could see the others take seats around the area. I shuffled around in his lap so I could lean on his left side meaning I could then see everyone.

"If you don't mind us asking," Sam began, sounding nervous for probably the first time ever. "What was it like in The Red Room?"

Natasha and I shared a nervous glance. We quietly spoke Russian knowing only Clint and James could understand fully because the twins were sat to far away to hear.

"We could outline it?" I whispered

"But our experiences will be different."

"The basics would be the same."

"So no detail, just what we were taught and vague on questions?" She asked.

"Sure." Neither of us were really ready for this but then again, we probably never would be.

"So…" I started before trailing off.

"How about we ask questions and you answer them?" Steve suggested, clearly picking up on our awkwardness towards the subject.

"Agreed." Natasha answered for both of us after a shared glance.

"What weapons are you trained in?" Pietro asked gently from his seat next to Wanda.

"SIG-Sauer P220, Milkor MGL, COP 357 Derringer, Sa Vz.61 Skorpian, Intratec TEC-38, Glock 17, M249 Saw, Dual Sai, Solo Xiphos, Throwing knives and the Kinzhal." I listed off almost on muscle memory.

Sam let out a low whistle, obviously recognising some of the names for the guns.

"Simplified, any gun that he's trained in and a bunch of different pointy things." I motioned to James with my head.

Natasha then explained what she was trained in and then continued to say the martial arts we were both taught. I then explained that we were taught different dances and the art of seduction, manipulation and the vague overview of other things.

Much to both Natasha's and my relief, T'Challa had soon come in saying it was going to be thirty minutes before dinner.

"Come on, Arianna, I've got some spare clothes." Wanda smiled at me as she stood up.

I went to stand up but James tightened his grip.

He whispered into my hair. "You're a very comfy personal heater."

I smiled. "I'll be back in a bit. Any longer than an hour and you can send out a search party."

He begrudgingly moved his arm, allowing me to get up. I lightly kissed his nose before following Wanda out the room.


End file.
